Thurrock Council pledge to undertake fly-tipping review

A council led fly-tipping review panel – focusing on alleyways – will be set up to look at what action can be taken to tackle the issue after ongoing complaints from residents.

Members of the Cleaner, Greener and Safer Overview and Scrutiny Committee last week (Thursday 13 July) praised the work due to take place and agreed the terms and timescales of the review.

In addition to the terms, members requested that a seat be made available for a member of the committee to be involved and nominated Cllr Cathy Kent.

Chair of the committee, Cllr Roy Jones spoke after the meeting, he said: “In June, Council passed a motion calling on this committee to conduct a full review of this issue, and just three weeks on, we’ve agreed its terms so work can now start to take place.

“We need to understand the scale of the issue across the whole borough, review the impact it has on residents, evaluate potential policy changes – including understanding the involved costs, and ultimately make a recommendation as to the best approach going forward.

He added: “I will be making sure this committee follows the review carefully, but the vice chair, Cllr Cathy Kent, will be a valuable voice around the table.”

4 Responses to "Thurrock Council pledge to undertake fly-tipping review"

robbiep July 18, 2017 at 3:12 pm

1. Fire gates either end with keys distributed to all households. 2. Organising residents who wish to maintain the alleyways. 3. Up north most alleyways are now small communal gardens made by the residents. 4. Clean, organised alleyways deter dumping as tippers know they’re being watched. It also deters residents from dumping out their back gate. 5. Making the resident responsible for their allotted area of alleyway also helps. 6. Lighting would be good too as this seems to deter the drug users. Some councils have employed solar lighting to deter these and fly tippers. 7, Portable CCTV can be employed, again tippers never know if the cameras are live or not. Most people who live with alleyways behind their properties are sick of all the dumping and fly tipping. We live on one that when we moved in in 2000 was a lovely little alley, well kept and maintained. We have motorcycles that we store in the back of the garden and it was easy to get them out. Now it’s impossible to even walk down these alleys. We have contacted the council on numerous occasions telling of the needles from drug use in the alley, but they said they sent someone to a look, bit of a lie, as I was around when the inspector viewed it and he stood at the top of the alley then got in his car and drove off. I was told he even picked up some discarded needles. Oh no he didn’t. We, the neighbours have removed the needles ourselves. We even had a cat come home with one stuck in his paw. The trouble with this council is the attitude of “If it cannot be seen from the road, we do nothing” That was exactly the words used when we complained over two years ago. As for our councillors, I have mailed all of them and had no reply. One was too busy being Mayor (Kathy Kent as mentioned in this article), the other (Her husband) running for MP, and the third I don’t even know who he is. Waste of space if you ask me. Well, there you go. You want comments, now you hear it from the streets affected. I bet I’m not the only one that’s so angry with the “Clean up the Town and forget the outskirts” mentality of the council. Oh, and by the way, Mrs Kent. We now have spilled oil, welding gas canister, 3 bed frames plus mattresses, a couple of fridges, a washing machine and a sofa. There will be a TV next week, we’ll have all we need to set up home right there in the back alley. Coming round for tea? No, I thought not.

Ed July 18, 2017 at 5:22 pm

Thurrock does appear to be decades behind many other local authorities in tackling this problem. As robbiep says gates are the answer. Just take a trip down to Southend and see how the installing gates on alleyways has helped tackle illegal dumping of rubbish.